[2012, Press released - cover page of a number of USA & UK Presses]

Our article “A Flexible and Highly Sensitive Strain Gauge Sensor using Reversible Interlocking of Nanofibers (Pang et al), ” was featured in cover page of a number of USA & UK Presses.

Next Generation: Ciliated Sensor (TheScientist) By Sabrina Richards | July 30, 2012

See the article: http://the-scientist.com/2012/07/30/next-generation-ciliated-sensor

What’s New: It’s not a one-sensation device: like the skin, the new sensor can detect multiple types of mechanical disturbance. “It is nice that their device is capable of sensing shear and torsion, which are difficult for most other sensors,” Zhenan Bao (Standford) of Stanford University, who did not participate in the research, wrote in an email. The interlocking nanofiber sensor can also detect pressure, while exhibiting high sensitivity compared to other types of sensors, said Suh.

Hairy solution to making sensitive artificial skin (physicsworld.com) by Tim Wogan | July 30, 2012

See the article: http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2012/jul/30/hairy-solution-to-making-sensitive-artificial-skin

John Rogers (UIUC) is impressed by the researchers’ design. “It represents a clever way to combine materials, mechanics and structure layouts for a class of tactile sensor technology that has exceptional performance and the ability to integrate naturally with the surface of the skin,” he says. He is sceptical, however, about the researchers’ claim to have removed the need for complex electronic circuitry. “If one is interested in real, multifunctional artificial skin, then you need a lot more and different stuff, such as different sensors, electronic amplifiers and multiplexers. The need for and benefits of active electronics do not go away,” he adds.

Hairy solution to making sensitive artificial skin (nanotechweb.org) by Tim Wogan | July 30, 2012

See the article: http://nanotechweb.org/cws/article/tech/50415

[The others]

IEEE SPECTRUM inside techonology

CHEMISTRYWORLD RSC

The Escapist Magazine

FUTURE of TECH on NBCNEWS

SMARTPLANET

NewScientist

CRAZYENGINEERS

O&P EDGE.com

NAFIGATE , etc.

[2012, Front Page of Nature.com 30/07/2012 and News & View]

Our Article on Nature materials posted on Nature dot com as first Page 30 July 2012

In addition, my article has been introduced as Nature News by Katherine Bourzac

(C. Pang, G.-Y. Lee, T.-I Kim, S. M. Kim, H. N. Kim, S.-H. Ahn, and K.-Y. Suh, “A Flexible and Highly Sensitive Strain Gauge

Sensor using Reversible Interlocking of Nanofibers” Nature Materials on line published )

Electronic sensor rivals sensitivity of human skin

Devices inspired by beetle wings could give robots a more nuanced sense of touch.

A flexible electronic sensor made from interlocking hairs can detect the gentle steps of a ladybird and distinguish between shear and twisting forces, just as human skin can. It can also be strapped to the wrist and used as a heart-rate monitor. The sensor's design, described today in Nature Materials (Pang et al), was inspired by beetle wing-locking structures, says Kahp-Yang Suh, an engineer at Seoul National University.

Human skin can distinguish between these types of strain, but most artificial sensors cannot. “Sensing shear and torsion is difficult,” says Zhenan Bao, a materials scientist at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, who is developing other flexible strain sensors. Other sensors detect only the total applied force, they can't say anything about its direction, says Suh.

http://www.nature.com/news/electronic-sensor-rivals-sensitivity-of-human-skin-1.11081

[Highlighting Best Research from the Nature Asia-Pacific]

(http://www.natureasia.com/en/research/highlight/7456/)

[2012, Highlight - Bioinspired reversibly locking devices]

2012/04/03 - Research highlight in Lab on a Chip → http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2012/lc/c2lc90033e

A paper highlighted in Lab on a Chip (C. Pang, T.-i. Kim, W. G. Bae, D. Kang, S. M. Kim, and K. Y. Suh, “Bioinspired Reversible Interlocker Using Regularly Arrayed High Aspect-Ratio Polymer Fibers,” Adv. Mater. 24(4), 475 (2012.01).)

Recently, Suh and colleagues have engineered reversible interlocking devices by mimicking the wing-locking structures in beetles. Pang et al. studied the microscopic surfaces of the beetle thorax and wing and found hexagonal arrays of thin microhairs.

They observed that interlocking and subsequent shearing of the microhairs on the wing and the thorax against each other resulted in a large shear force and locking of the two surfaces.